


The End of an Era

by HopeInHandfuls



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Carmilla - Freeform, F/F, Love, Romance, Sad, ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-17 08:31:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4659786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeInHandfuls/pseuds/HopeInHandfuls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Each chapter will be a new end for the web-series Carmilla. Some will be happy, some will tear your heart out (with any luck) and some will make you want to smash your computer screen. </p><p>We all know the day will come when this beloved show comes to an end, and just think of the possibilities.</p><p>What does the end have in store?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First Ending

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Tumblr if you wish! It's 'feelmoreinfinite'
> 
> Look out for parallels across chapters by the way!

Carmilla was in the kitchen making coffee for Laura when it happened. A burst of tears had managed to break free from her being, leaving her feeling vulnerable, and weak.

It was all over now.

Vordenberg was dead, and it had almost cost the both of them their lives. But alas, it did not, and here they were. Alive. So very much alive. And life, was if anything, normal. It was a strange euphoric feeling for the vampire, for she had never lived a normal life, in which the only problems were the occasional argument with her significant other, or accidentally putting too much milk in her tea.

It was beautiful, so very beautiful. 

It wasn't like she was always looking over her shoulder her entire life, in fact, if someone came up behind her, well, they could only hope they could run incredibly fast. It was more the fact that she was always looking over Laura's shoulder. And she didn't feel it remotely necessary anymore.

She had protected this girl to no end, and she would do it again. Ten years from now, fifty years from now, one hundred years from now.

And when people looked at them strange in the street in thirty years when Laura looked more like Carmilla's mother than her girlfriend, she would remember these times and make note to herself that life could in fact be worse.

And when Laura was old, and grey, fragile and weak, Carmilla would take care of her, just as she had done at Silas. 

She knew she would forever take care of the driven girl with the smile that could light up an entire city. And she in turn felt partly responsible that this girl could could in fact still smile after all that had happened.

After all, they had each other. 

Carmilla placed two sugars in Laura's coffee, whilst pouring herself a bag of blood. 

She handled the TARDIS mug with care, god only knows what would happen if she were to break such a prized possession Laura loved so dearly.

In the rush of thought, she had forgotten to wipe the tears away from her eyes, and of course, Laura noticed them immediately.

They both took a seat beside each other, webcam switched off. For it was no longer necessary to document all their happenings.

Today would be the day it would finally end, and everyone would go about their lives. But they'd never forget. They'd always be looking back.

And maybe that was ok, and maybe Laura wanted to know what happened to her first viewer fifty years from now, the first person to truly have faith in her, but alas, she would most likely never know the answer to such questions, and maybe that was ok too.

Laura placed the mug on the side, and in turn took Carmilla's mug from her hands, stroking her fingers as she did so, and placed it beside hers.

She wiped the tears from Carm's eyes, as gentle as possible. 

It was strange, she thought, to be gentle to such a powerful being. A being that could kill her in a second if she wanted to.

But she didn't want to.

She wanted Laura to wipe away the tears.

And so she did.

LaFontaine and Perry decided to go on an adventure after all that had happened. Laura and Carm were invited, of course, but they both agreed that they'd had enough adventure for now. But they still sent postcards.

She missed them dearly, but she knew that she would see them soon, and if not soon, down the line, on their graduation, on their first day at work, on their wedding day.

Danny had decided to move away. She could no longer bare to look at the campus that had caused her so much misery, so much distress.

And Laura could not blame her. 

She never knew if she would see the tall girl with the red hair ever again.

But she had hoped she would.

Laura placed a kiss on Carm's cheek, and stroked her face. For once, Laura felt less fragile than the girl before her.

Maybe she had always been less fragile.

Maybe there would come a time when they would both break together. 

But it wouldn't be today.

Today, they would do what they had planned to do ever since this mess had ended.

Laura stood up, stroked Carmilla's hand, and took it in hers, walking her over to the computer. 

It was already on, Laura just needed to enable the webcam. 

And she did.

With their hands still entwined in each others, Laura spoke.

"It is with great joy that I say today, it is over. We shall no longer live in fear, we shall be at one with vampires, at one with each other. If there is anything you should take from this, it is this. We are alive."

Laura smiled, glanced at Carm, who smiled back, and continued.

"Some will say the biggest feat they had to deal with at college was prepping for their exams, cramming it all in at the last minute. Others will say it is when they accidentally messed up their lines at their graduation speech, and as for me? As for _us?_ We will say it is when we battled giant mushrooms, when we weren't in libraries with levitating books and talking to hundreds of year old vampires. And personally? I think that's just a little more exciting.

Do I regret signing up to Silas? I do not. It made me stronger, more confident, and more driven than I ever have been in my entire life. And I hope you can all say the same. What's more? I met the most incredible person I could ever ask for, and I made the most incredible friends along the way.

LaFontaine, you make me laugh more than anyone else on this planet, and I am so grateful for that. You're a realist, and you accept even the strangest, possibly because you are one of the greats, but also possibly because you are simply strange, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I love you.

Perry, you are the craziest person I have ever met in my entire life, and I love it. You know that victory stands on the back of sacrifice, and though it took you longer than many to accept that, you did, and now? You're braver than all of us combined. I love you.

Danny, you're the sweetest person I know, you protected me, defended me, you cared for me, and I in turn, you. The memories we shared will stay with me until the end of my days, and I will never forget you. I love you."

Laura looked over to the girl beside her, the girl that would do anything for her. The girl that she would do anything for.

She continued.

"Carm, you mean more to me than my own life. You stuck by me, you protected me, you made me feel safe even when the world was crumbling and I was too. You never asked for anything from me, even when I asked things of you, crazy things. And you did that because you may act like some mysterious evil vampire, but I know that your soul is kind, your spirit is graceful, your heart is warm. You are the reason I am glad I came to this university. If I hadn't met you, I..I don't know what I'd do. Now that I know you, I don't wish to be without you. Now that I'm with you, I never want to leave your side. And when I'm old, and withered, I hope to still be by that side. In the arms of the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. I love you."

The three words between them had never been exchanged before, and they lingered in the air.

A tear left Carmilla's cheek before she could stop it, she wiped it away herself before placing Laura in a warm embrace. 

They had fought together, loved together, _stayed_ together after all these happenings, and the two of them could conquer anything so long as they had each other.

Nothing else mattered now.

"So, this is Laura Hollis, student of Silas University, signing off, may your lives be filled with love, and hope and aspirations. May you find what you're truly looking for, may your days be long, and may you forever remember the day we won the battle that saved us all."

She would never know what their future had held, would never know if these stories would be shared around campfires, but never truly believed. 

She would never know what happened to the people she had met, to the places she had seen, to the people they had lost.

All she could do was believe that everyone got the lives they deserved.

She certainly had.

As Laura stared into the eyes of the girl before her, she knew she was home. And no matter how many years were destined to pass, she would _forever_ be home in the arms of the girl that had died so many years before her.

She turned off the monitor, wiped a tear from her eye, before taking the hand of the girl she had loved so dearly, just never said it aloud until now, as they left the room together and ventured out into the world that was so safe for them to live in.

It was safe for all.

 

 


	2. The Second Ending

Carmilla lunged in her armchair. Worn out after pacing for days. The fear, the confusion, the end.

Hope was a force, an entity, and it existed in the minds of the desperate. And right now, the vampire was feeling pretty desperate.

But she still didn't feel that weightless edge of hope.

It never came.

It never would.

  
Vordenberg was still out there. And when she found him, she would rip him limb from limb. Tear away his flesh, his hopes, his dreams.  
He had taken away everything from her, her spirit, her grace, _Laura._

It physically pained her to think of the girl with the lightly browned hair. It was difficult to picture the kisses, the intimacy, when the backs of her eyelids were cased with the blood on her shirt, the emptiness in her pupils, the browned hair falling limply to the sides of the dying girl as she slipped away from her grasp indefinitely.

She had loved before, and she had lost before. But never in all of her years had she ever felt the sensation she currently felt.

Some had told her that her heart was laced with cold, but it deemed untrue when she thought of Laura. For when she thought of Laura, she could almost hear the faint beat, could almost feel the warmth embrace of her arms around her waist.

Alas, she would never feel such things again.

  
Today was the day the two of them should be together, side by side, waving goodbye to all the sickness and despair they had experienced at the hands of others.

But it wasn't.

It was simply the opposite.

Carmilla sat in her chair, alone, always alone, and instead waved goodbye to the girl of her dreams, to the girl that could make even the coldest of hearts melt at the lightest touch.

 

The vampire had visited the grave of her love as often as she could, late at night when no one was around. She didn't wish to have to explain herself to Laura's father.

There's nothing she would enjoy more than to tell him about their past, about the future they would never have, but there was always the possibility he would invite her in for tea. And they would become close friends. And one day he would realize that Laura's love did in fact not age.

And that was a burden she could not put on him.

For she had already placed that burden on the girl with the lightly browned hair.

And it had cost the girl her life.

She had visited her yesterday, in the dark of night, and she had sat down beside her.

She had placed the TARDIS mug atop the grave, and they would share a drink.

But deep down she knew Laura had already had her last sip long before.

Her last ever sip.

She left the mug by the graveside.

It wasn't hers after all.

  
When reality wormed its way inside her, it was like a jolting nightmare. Every moment was a nightmare.

She thought of what life may have been if Silas University had gone unscathed, if she was never there, if Laura simply resided in the school with her roommate, Betty.

Laura would probably be sitting in front of her laptop, but she wouldn't be journalizing.

She'd be watching a movie, popcorn to the side of her. The movie might be about vampires, but the girl would only ever view such works as fiction.

And she would be alive, so very alive.

But this was not that life.

  
Carmilla had found her way into Laura's world, and when she got there, she never wanted to leave. And she didn't.

She would never leave that world, even if Laura had in fact left it for eternity.

She dreamed of them together in fifty years, when Laura looked more like her grandmother than her girlfriend. When they would have to come up with ways in which they could explain themselves to passers by. And that day would never come.

Laura would never grow old.

Carmilla would never watch her grow old.

Carmilla would never grow old.

 

Her world had crumbled.

She would be haunted by these thoughts until the world itself crumbled with her.

The vampire looked over towards the laptop. Laura's laptop.

In an ideal world, they would be reporting their victory. They'd be signing off for good.

Laura would never sign off.

She made her way over to the table, and lifted the laptop screen up.

It required Laura's password, so she typed it in as salty waves of defeat leaked from her eyes.

" **stargazing335** "

She activated the webcam, preparing to make her final statement. To make Laura's final statement for her.

She wiped the tears, and pressed record.

"This is Carmilla Karnstein, signing off on behalf of Laura Hollis. The bravest, most intelligent girl I have ever met. She saved us all, LaFontaine, Perry, Danny...me. And I know if she was here with us today, she'd be saying good luck, and take care, and know that wherever you go, live life for yourself. Not for somebody else.

I have lived for the longest time, I have seen the lives of many first hand, but I have never seen anyone quite like Laura. I will continue to live a thousand lifetimes, and a thousand lifetimes beyond that, but immortality is the cruelest mistress of all. Because I will never be able to let go of you, Laura. But you let go.

You had no other choice.

  
I love you, Laura."

  
She turned off the computer, and made her way towards the door, knowing that she would never see the face of the familiar again. She couldn't bare to look into the faces of her friends, Laura's friends. It simply hurt too much.

So as she opened the door, clasping the handle, she knew.

She knew.

She would leave this town.

She would never come back.

And she would be plagued with the thoughts of the girl with the lightly browned hair.

She would exist.

But she would never live.

Neither of them ever would again.

She closed the door.

She didn't look back.


	3. The Third Ending

The tears she had been holding leaked out of her, reaching, searching, finding their way to her skin. And when they dried up, she could be certain that new tides would find their way once again and replace the ones that had died before them.

The girl grasped for composure, reaching out with both hands, alas, it never found her. It was an entity that had faded, never to be found again. A myth, a tale, a lie.

Sometimes, on occasion, her heart would beat for what felt like a thousand times a moment, and others, it stopped beating. If she pressed her hand to her chest, she felt a dull throb. She felt an organ that had lost the will, the energy, to sustain itself.

She had fallen with it.

They had won. It was over.

They had defeated the enemy.

Carm had defeated the enemy.

Laura had simply watched it happen, unable to stop hell from unleashing its way until the realms of normality, unable to stop the events that would soon unfold.

Life, love, death.

Slipped away.

Thump thump, thump thump.

Her heart, racing, destroying itself from the inside.

And she wanted it to.

She wanted it so very deeply.

She wished to burn, burn with Carmilla, burn for eternity, burn for all that she had loved, all that she had lost, all that she wished to burn for.

She would drown in the ashes.

That first day, that first day she had met the girl with the raven hair, with the seductive eyes, with the elegant charm, she knew she would fall.

Fall farther and greater than she ever had before.

And she did.

She had.

She would.

Thump thump, thump thump.

She had that first day, still fresh in the back of her mind, but the last day, that last day, overpowered everything. Her very senses, her keen sight, vanished.

Gone.

Her gaze led astray to the TARDIS mug on the side by the chair that the vampire found home in.

Carmilla had found home in a chair when Laura had found home in her.

She grasped the mug in both hands, as the tides in her eyes made their cycle once again.

The girl gritted her teeth as she threw the object across the room, smashing into pieces as it made its collision with the far wall at the opposite end.

She was envious of that mug. Envious because it was fragile enough to smash at any given moment. So easy to crumble.

She wished to crumble with it. She felt fragile enough. So why couldn't she break?

No one mourned for the girl with the punk attitude. No one knew who she was.

LaFontaine, Perry, and Danny felt a pang in their chest of course. But compared to Laura it was nothing more than a dull ache.

When Carmilla had told Laura that she did it all for her, she had never believed her. Things had since changed. Laura knew. She knew that all of this, the sacrifice she had made, was entirely for the girl she loved so deeply. To keep her safe.

But she still felt so vulnerable.

Thump thump, thump thump.

The vampire was cremated, and here she lie, by the mantlepiece, in Laura's plain view. She could hardly take her eyes off it, half expecting the girl to somehow restore her entire being before Laura's very eyes and wrap her up into her arms and ask her to come away with her.

"It would be just you and me in love."

Thump thump, thump thump.

Thump thump, thump thump.

Thump thump, thump thump.

But she never came. She never embraced her. Would never do so again.

Would never look into her eyes again.

Would never.

Again.

Laura walked over to the laptop, and prepared herself to sign off for the last time. The very last time.

But when she reached her destination, she paused. Hesitant.

Carmilla had died for this.

She had died for this.

For this.

This.

She reached for the laptop with both hands, and smashed it over the desk, again, and again, and again.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP....THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP.

Her breathing rigid, her posture even more so.

Her mind trailing one thousand thoughts per minute.

As if on cue, LaFontaine came rushing through the door, grabbing Laura by her arms and wrapping her in a warm embrace.

Thump thump, thump thump.

Thump thump.

Thump.

She could breathe again.

"I know, I know." The person with the red hair consoled her.

"She...I need her LaF. I need her." Laura had finally broken.

"Listen to me. Listen. She died for this. For us. So that we could be safe. So that you could live. If you fall apart now, she would have died in vain. This isn't the end for you."

She died for this.

It was the end for her.

The words were never uttered out loud. Laf was only trying to help after all.

But nothing could help her now.

No one could save her now, she had already been saved.

And she had died for this.

And Laura had died with her.

Thump thump, thump thump, thump thump.

LaFontaine took Laura by the hand, and edged her over towards the cabinet. Laura opened it to reveal the dried batwing Carmilla had given to her when they had first met.

Thump thump, thump thump, thump thump.

It seemed like forever ago.

But to Carmilla forever was a long time.

And her forever was up.

The girl clutched her fingers around it, as if it was the only thing that truly ever mattered. As if it was Carm's hand she was clutching.

She walked over to the urn where Carmilla lay, and placed it by her side.

She needed it more than her now.

"Let's get out of here." Laf broke the thought.

Laura looked over towards LaFontaine and nodded.

She would be back, of course. She could never leave Carmilla behind.

Because Carmilla never left her behind.

And she died for this.

Arm in arm, they left together.

And if Carmilla could no longer live, could no longer love, Laura would forever love for her.

But she would never forget.

Thump thump, thump thump, thump thump

Thump thump, thump thump

Thump

Thump.

"Thank you, Carm" she whispered, as she left everything behind.

She could breathe again.


	4. Interval

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not an ending as such, more an Easter egg of sorts, though it'll taste a lot more sour than chocolate.

Laura tossed and turned. Asleep, but barely. Her lip quivered as she scrunched her nose, and her hands could not find the haven they desired beneath the sheets.

After whimpering noises found their way out of her, Carmilla finally decided to put the poor girl out of her misery by waking her up.

She did so gently, carefully stroking her hair with one hand whilst caressing her shoulder with the other. It was always this way, delicate, as if Laura would fall away, disintegrate at the faintest touch, as if the person who loved her could just as equally break her.

"You were dreaming again." Carm's voice came out as raspy, tired.

Laura instantly knew she had been keeping the vampire awake again with her nightmares. A regular occurrence she wished so deeply she could break away from. Sometimes she wished she would never dream at all.

"It felt so real." Laura whispered.

"It always does." She replied.

Carmilla sat up, Laura followed suit.

The raven haired girl pulled a strand of hair from Laura's face, and tucked it behind her ear. As she did so, she couldn't help but notice the grey that had taken over some of the lightly browned hair that had once been.

Laura was a canvas that was slowly coming apart at the seams, and it was so very filled with colours. Grey was always destined to be one of them. But it could never outweigh the brightness of her soul. A light that would forever shine through and act as its main appeal. She was a mix of the finest yellows and blues, whilst Carmilla was the darkest shades of purples, and reds.

"We're safe now. You're safe now." Carmilla assured Laura, who had always been a worrier.

The worrier, and the warrior.

The silence ached between them, begging for its sweet release. And for once, just once, Carmilla wished she could dream just as Laura could.

For dreaming was something that did not come naturally to her. And she had almost forgotten how it felt to be traced on the backs of her eyelids, where silhouettes came to life, where realities became morphed into a spectrum of strange.

Laura pecked Carmilla on the cheek, before tucking herself back into bed, and falling asleep faster than she had woken.

The vampire did the same, though she did not fall asleep.

She lay awake, listening to the deafening quiet that was rising and falling in between breaths beside her. The beautiful girl.

And she pretended she could dream.

Carmilla found Laura placing items into a backpack the next day. She smiled, thinking about how this girl decided she was still not too old to use a backpack, until Laura turned around, placed it in Carmilla's hands, and said

"Here, I put some lunch in a bag for you."

before picking up her own bag, a bag that looked like it was made in the 1970's, and her pair of glasses that she found herself wearing more often than not these days due to the deterioration of her eyesight.

The raven haired girl took a gulp, and her breath caught.

Since when had they gone from two lovers, young and in love, dancing in that dorm room in Silas, to two people who cared for each other but didn't quite now how to express such things anymore. To a rapidly ageing person who would rather make lunch for the young looking punk rock girl than make love to her.

They had been together so long, that Laura instantly knew that look.

The look that screamed "what are we supposed to do, when you are ageing, and I never shall. When your face will change and mine shall forever remain the same."

There would have been a time when Laura would simply stare at the floor, unaware of her next move. But now, now there was no boundaries between them. Now they were as comfortable with each other as if they were one being. One person.

So instead, she took a step closer to the girl, the girl who would never age, and wrapped her in her arms, and kissed her cheek.

There was also a time when she felt too guilty to even do such an innocent thing. When she felt it was wrong for a thirty nine woman to even think of kissing an eighteen year old girl.

But Carmilla wasn't eighteen.

The vampire would forever be older than her.

And she had nothing to feel guilty for.

She caressed her face, and made her way to Carm's lips, gently at first, then more forcefully. She needed this, knowing that the minute they stepped outside, they would no longer be able to do such things lest they wished to attract stares from passers by.

And no one would ever know. No one would ever know how this girl was murdered at eighteen at a ball, and no one would ever know just how much the girl with the lightly browned hair loved her so.

No one would know just how much Carmilla would hurt when the day came that Laura could no longer make her own lunch, could no longer put her own shoes on. When a hospital bed was slept in more than her own. No one would know the gut wrenching feeling that was to come as Laura slipped away from her grasp in her old age, never to be held again.

When time had taken its toll on the once young girl and the vampire had simply been there to watch the wrath of inevitability whilst she remained forever young.

Laura was no longer young, but the raven haired girl knew that she would forever be the girl that reported everything on her computer all those years ago. She would forever be the girl that danced with her, shared champagne with her, loved with her.

And Carmilla would always be the same way.

She placed the backpack over her shoulder, and decided to give Laura one last kiss before they were exposed to the open world and could no longer do such things.

Knowing that there would come a day when Laura could no longer love.

 

 


	5. Interval II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Going to be honest here, this is the first time I've cried at my own fic.
> 
> THAT WASN'T PART OF THE PLAN!
> 
> Another thing that didn't go to plan was that I wasn't going to publish this until I'd got at least another three endings in. But then I wrote it and I was like "I have to make other people feel the pain I just experienced whilst writing this."
> 
> So I'm a little upset that this fic will now be incredibly unorganized, but hey, such is life.
> 
> Enjoy! Or don't, whatever works.
> 
> If you really want to experience a tremendous amount of pain (of course you do! You came to this fic I know you want to feel it!) then once you've read this, listen to Mallory Knox's '1949' and enjoy the suffering. You're so very welcome.

Her chest rose and fell, steady, light, weightless. Her fingers twitched as she slept. And she still looked just as delicate as she had when she was nineteen.

Though those times had come and gone, she would never forget. Neither of them would ever forget those days at Silas, when they kissed as the rain was pouring in from outside, when they remained warm despite the cold lingering in the air around them.

The rain was pouring now, but they were no longer at Silas. No, they had not been at Silas for sixty five years now.

The environment had become somewhat different, and they had replaced the confines of a home they had called their own to a hospital room.

Carmilla noticed the changes each year, for she loved the girl. She noticed when she got her first grey hair, her first wrinkle. She noticed when the girl struggled to do a simple task by herself.

The first ten years were a blur and mesh of love and passion and innocence. A warped tide of vibrant colours, spilling into memories. The next ten were almost as passionate. A haze of journeys, a tale of two souls in the form of postcards, experiences. The next twenty became harder, when the calls came stating that they had been seen kissing outside a coffee shop, and "was the punk looking girl even legal?" and "shame on the older one for manipulating a teenager like that."

But they didn't know. They didn't know a thing.

They didn't know just how much older that punk looking girl was than the girl with the greying hair that let her guard slip for just that one moment because she could no longer look into the eyes of raven haired girl without wanting to kiss her.

And the worst part was when she apologized.

She had apologized for kissing her. Her own lover had to apologize.

And just like that, they had to move away before more rumours came about.

It wasn't the first time, and they knew it wouldn't be the last.

There had been worse matters, mind. Much worse matters.

Carmilla had seen it all, like when Laura had watched her father slip from her grasp. The vampire had met him only a few times, never introduced as the girlfriend, but rather 'the girl who had helped her with her calculus work that one time'. For if they stayed in contact, he would know, he would know that this girl was ageless, timeless, immortal.

So when he made his visits to their home, Carmilla took her leave.

And when he asked his daughter questions such as "why haven't you got married yet?" or "why are you living alone at your age?" she simply replied "I'm saving myself for someone special."

And she was.

Carmilla had in fact watched death first hand on many occasions. Laura's father, Mattie, LaFontaine.

LaF had been a hard one for Laura to bare, and it was incredibly difficult to pick up the pieces afterwards.

They had died from old age, just as Laura's father had. Their bright red hair had also faded to a dull grey. In younger years they were made of fire and dreams, and as they got older they were made of ashes and marble.

But their humour never died.

Not until their very last breath.

As they laid in that hospital bed, as Perry held their hand so firm, they uttered their final words

"Do you wanna put some soy milk into my cocoa? I'm feeling a little anaemic."

The room erupted with laughter until everyone had noticed that LaF was no longer laughing with them. And then it turned to tears.

When they went home that night, Laura wasn't herself.

She rarely was these days.

That spark inside her, that light that had formed all those years ago was beginning to burn out. And it was the realization that had crumbled her so.

She wanted to keep her humour till the final minute, like LaFontaine had done. Alas, she knew it would never be that way with her.

And now here they were.

Those final minutes had come.

And no matter how much preparation Carmilla had taken for this moment, the inescapable sadness had hit her like a bullet to the gut.

She had been stabbed, she had been tortured, she had been locked away, but nothing hurt quite like this.

Nothing ever would.

She placed her hand over the girl, the woman, in front of her.

And she knew that if she hadn't have spent all these years with her, she would no longer recognize her if she saw her in the street as the girl who had documented all her events in front of a computer.

She would see her as just another old woman, making her way to the grave.

But that wasn't the case.

She had lived with her all these years. And there had been few days they had spent apart since.

They could never get married, for Carmilla was dead, after all.

But she knew just how much Laura wanted a wedding.

So when the girl reached the age of forty, the vampire had decided that it was finally time that she get what she desired.

Nothing was ever official, of course. But it didn't need to be, when the raven haired girl got down on one knee, and made a promise to love her for the rest of her days, it was enough.

Laura leaked salty waves of happiness, and Carmilla had done the same.

When they stood underneath a tree, in the middle of the most beautiful garden they had ever laid eyes upon. And all their friends were there.

Perry, Danny, LaFontaine.

But suddenly the shrubbery was replaced with an IV, the green of the grass replaced by the blue of the hospital bed, the sky replaced with the dull lighting above them that reminded the vampire of the dull light in Laura that was slowly fading into nothingness.

The light that Laura was falling into, the light that would swallow her indefinitely.

Carmilla had sat and read to her daily. Though a word had not been exchanged between the two of them for days. For Laura struggled to speak.

She had recited the tales of their own life as she did so.

Like when they had stolen bags of blood from a butcher when Laura was twenty three and they had to run like lightning when the owner of said butcher had chased them in the pouring rain.

And when the coast was clear, and they had found somewhere secluded in a nearby ally, they had laughed, and they had loved, and they had kissed.

Soaking wet, drenched by the rain, they had shared their warmth, and the vampire had almost forgotten the bags of pigs blood on the floor around them.

Almost.

Laura smiled when she could, twitching her fingers to show Carmilla she understood. To show Carmilla that she was still that girl in that ally way.

And she would do it all again if she could.

If.

And the vampire knew that something was up when she told yet another story, a tale of how they had drove their car into the ocean and simply laughed about it, and the girl didn't smile.

Didn't twitch her fingers.

She was breathing, but barely, just barely.

"It's ok..." Carmilla said, tears welling up in her eyes, though she didn't let them find a way to her skin. She would be brave for her.

"...you can let go."

"C...C...Carm?" A faint breathy pronunciation.

"Yeah cutie?" The vampire joked. Though deep down she knew she wasn't joking. Laura would always be her cutie. Always.

And just like that, Laura uttered her last words, her very last words

"Don't murder anyone for Christmas."

The girl with the raven hair laughed, though once again, she halted when Laura's hands became limp, and lifeless.

She really had managed to keep her humour up until the last moment.

And suddenly, she didn't feel so brave any more. She broke down until a wave of tears leaked out of her being until she thought she was going to flood the room.

"I...I love you Laura." The words meant so much to her.

And she knew they'd mean just as much to the girl she had met so many years ago.

The girl she had shared her life with.

All of it.

Like the time when Laura almost had her bag stolen in a shopping mall, almost being the key word, as Carmilla of course was not going to have any of that, and so she chased the assailant down, and almost split him in half when they fell to the ground and she retrieved the bag that had been taken from her lover and Laura replied

"I don't think he'll be mugging anyone else again any time soon" and smiled that Laura smile the girl with the raven hair had come to love so deeply.

Her smile never changed, not when they had been together ten years, twenty years, fifty years.

It had always stayed the same up until that final moment.

A nurse entered the room unannounced, interrupting her thoughts, she stared the vampire down, and said

"I'm sorry about your grandmother."

And just like that.

Their tale of love and loss was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished it? Don't forget! Listen to Mallory Knox's '1949' and sit back and enjoy the suffering! You earned it!


End file.
